[SMMS Weekly Review] Ternary and Pure Cobalt Black Mass Prices in the Disassembly Recycling Market Continued to Rise This Week, 2025.9.22-2025.9.25

SMM September 25:

Prices of salt products such as cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate continued to rise this week, resulting in basically flat nickel and cobalt payable indicators for ternary and LCO black mass, while the lithium payable indicator also remained basically flat. The prices per % lithium for LFP black mass held steady this week; for example, LFP pole piece black mass currently trades at 26,500-28,000 yuan/mtu. Taking ternary black mass as an example: the nickel and cobalt payable indicator for ternary pole piece black mass currently stands at 73.5-75.5%, up 0.5% WoW, while the lithium payable indicator ranges from 69-72%, also up about 1% WoW. On the profit side, externally purchased LFP black mass for lithium carbonate production continued to incur losses, with profit margins between -5% and -6%. Apart from several newly commissioned LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants this year, most LFP recycling enterprises have production lines that use other raw materials to produce lithium carbonate. Therefore, even with some improvement in lithium carbonate prices, most enterprises chose to halt purchasing and production when facing losses. The situation is similar for ternary hydrometallurgy, with profits hovering around 1-3%, while LCO hydrometallurgy performed slightly better than LFP and ternary enterprises, at around 3%. Supply side, following the price increases of nickel, cobalt, and lithium, upstream recycling enterprises quickly raised prices for batteries and pole pieces such as LCO batteries and LFP batteries, with black mass prices also increasing to some extent. Demand side, as this round of lithium carbonate price increases is linked to factors such as China-US trade and coking coal, most enterprises remained cautious amid losses, with many LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants maintaining B-end toll processing.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711